Saturday, June 6, 2009

A Flood of Blessings

One year ago today we were waking up to a strange noise, turning on the light and looking down the stairs to see the impossible...our house filling up with water. It was hard to take everything in that day. In an attempt to protect myself, my brain kept shutting off every couple of minutes. I would be carrying a flashlight and then it would be gone, and I would have no recollection of putting it down. When I saw a boat driving up to our house, it didn't make any sense. And every time I tried to wrap my head around all the water in my house, I just couldn't. In the bathroom, I couldn't even see the toilet anymore; in the laundry room, I knew the furnace was sitting in waist-high water and the washer/dryer were completely submerged along with the loads of laundry in them; in the bedroom all the blankets and posters and random things that end up in closets were just a mushy, dirty mess and the bed had floated over to the doorway. Everything was wrong, and everything was wet.
That was a bad day. But it also allowed us to see how loved we are, because we had so many church members come to our aid, and so many family members who helped us tear our house apart and then put it back together again. And maybe being so helpless encouraged us to rely on the Lord a little more and helped us to acknowledge that all our things, even the ones that were irreplaceable, are just things that we can't take with us after this life anyway.
We wish the flood had never happened, obviously. But this year hasn't been all bad. Topher might make things a bit more complicated in our day-to-day lives, but he's been a wonderful distraction and blessing nonetheless (however don't get your hopes up because we're still pretty sure he's going to be an only child, lol). And rebuilding the house was the biggest pain in the world, but now that it's done we can look at the "for sale" sign outside and be proud of how far we've come.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that I would never have picked the flood as a trial in my life, but I'm grateful that we're on this side of things, and I'm grateful for all the love we've received along the way.
--KC